T'ai Chi for Health: Yang Short Form 37 Form

Terry Dunn does an excellent job in breaking down the warm-ups and the Tai Chi form into very easy and understandable segments.

I purchased this DVD to enhance my study of Tai Chi. I had heard positive comments about Terry Dunn, and was excited to view this new video. However, I was somewhat disappointed by the DVD.

On the positive side, I felt Mr Dunn did an excellent job explaining the stances and the breathing, and did a good job demonstrating them. Often, two views will pop up on the screen to assist you when he turns his back, so you can see both front and rear views. Each section of the form has an automatic playback feature that loops that portion of the form over and over, making it easier to learn it step by step, without constantly fiddling with your remote. The evidence of the utility of this video is that I bought it two months ago and I still use it several times a week to guide my home Tai Chi workouts, when I elect to perform the Yang style short form.

On the negative side, the video quality is subpar. I get the impression that multiple portions were perhaps lifted from an older VHS version. I would have preferred more traditional garb (Mr Dunn wears a t-shirt and shorts) and more traditional chinese music rather than the dated, New Age type keyboard music, which frankly gets on my nerves after a short time. In addition, the lighting on the set is subpar, and the set is not very attractive. Given that this is an instructional video, these are perhaps not the most important parts of the video, but they do detract from the overall feel, and bring a less than satifactory aura to the experience.

Despite giving the video 3 stars and the above mentioned drawbacks, I still feel it is a good bargain (I paid $14.99 here on Amazon), and I plan on buying Mr Dunn's Yang style Long Form in the future.

One of the problems I find out in Amazon reviews is that very few are objective and dispassionate, and what is worst, it seems most of them are made by friends, relatives or disciples of the authors.
How can you praise a video that has very poor quality and is dark and consequently it is a poor guide for tai chi learning?
In tai chi one of the most important and difficult things to learn is the hands and feet movement and it is almost impossible to follow them by watching this video.
The only thing that saves this dvd and why I give 3 stars are the Qi Gong exercises.
Finally it is advisable to know before buying it, that Mr Dunn does not do the 24 Yang forms and his positions and movements are significantly different than the done on the popular 24 short form.

I have always liked the vhs version I got years ago, and got the DVD when the tape was lost. I especially like the continual playback position by position. The repetition, and not being dragged on through the video before one "gets" a position is just what the learner needs. The same Terry Dunn, the same soothing tone and music, easier to control and follow.

This should be a good tape. The instructor is good at describing what to do even if he misspeaks (left for right).
But, the problem is that it is frustrating to follow this his movement. The set is all white - so you have no frame of reference when the instructor moves around - how far does he move? There are times when the arm movements are blocked from view by his body. The demonstration of the flow at the end of the DVD was so dark that even with the TV brightness set highest, I could barely make out what the instructor was doing.